Holiday marketing trends

The 2025 holiday season is expected to be budget-conscious and more spread out. We will break down key trends and how advertisers can adapt messaging, timing, and strategies to attract shoppers.

This guide includes content from the Ads Strategy Guidebook for holiday marketing 2025. View the entire guidebook here.

The holiday shopping season in the U.S. typically starts in the summer, with 14% of shoppers beginning their shopping as early as summer and continuing through the end of the year.¹

With Thanksgiving falling late in the calendar on November 27, 2025, advertisers can expect a higher concentration of sales in December than before, making it essential to sustain momentum well beyond Cyber Monday.²

According to Mintel Reports,³ when it comes to holiday shopping in 2025, 42% of customers expect to do so before Thanksgiving, 27% from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. Notably, 31% plan to do holiday shopping from Cyber Monday through New Year’s.

This means the window to purchase is stretched across nearly three months, with spikes around key cultural moments but no single window dominating. Planning advertising activity only around Black Friday and Cyber Monday means potentially missing large audiences on either side.

Turn the long, fragmented holiday season into sales by thinking long-term with the following strategies:

1. Break campaigns into Lead-up, Peak, and Lead-out phases for each event: The last three months of the year are packed with shopping moments. Use a detailed calendar to plan your ad strategy effectively.
2. Reach audiences early where they spend their time: Sponsored TV can spark early awareness, giving customers more time to consider your products. Sponsored Display can help you reach shoppers beyond the Amazon store, bringing your brand and products top of mind.
3. Stay visible all season with Sponsored Brands: Use lifestyle creatives to reach early researchers and last-minute buyers.
4. Reengage interested shoppers using Views remarketing with Sponsored Display: Shoppers who browsed but didn’t buy may still convert later in the season.

Takeaway: Advertisers should plan for the multi-month shopping season and customize their strategy for each phase to maximize sales.

In 2024, holiday shoppers expanded their definition of what counts as a gift. While gift cards, toys, and clothing remain top choices, categories not traditionally seen as "gifting" staples, like beauty (37%), food/beverages (34%), and health and wellness (25%), are now firmly part of the holiday consideration set.⁴

To capture this behavior, help make your product more relevant for holiday use cases through these strategies:

1. Update creatives across Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands to reflect gifting themes even for everyday products. For example, for a skincare item, replace “Daily hydration” with “Gift-worthy glow.”
2. Cast a wider net by reaching adjacent interests. For example, go beyond “blender” and include keywords like “kitchen mixer,” “food processor,” “juicer,” or “meal prep tools.” Use broad match in your keyword targeting or Sponsored Display in-market audiences to reach new shoppers interested in similar appliances or culinary gifts.
3. Refresh your Brand Store with a seasonal gifting lens. Add “Gifts by Price” or “Gifts for Him/Her/Them” modules even for daily essentials.
4. Test lifestyle images or seasonal A+ content that shows products being unboxed, shared, or given as gifts—not just used.

Takeaway: You don’t need to sell toys to run a great holiday campaign. If you sell a product that solves a need, it can be a gift.

Many consumers are currently focused on finding good value and prioritizing essential purchases. This has led them to seek out deals and sales earlier than in previous years. In a global consumer survey, 59% of respondents said they are looking for ways to save money on everyday expenses due to rising inflation and economic uncertainty.⁷

To engage shoppers, focus on value reassurance and deal clarity across your campaigns:

1. Product mix tactic: Promote multi-packs or bundles of items that are priced lower than similar products from other brands but offer better value, like more positive reviews. This can help shoppers accomplish more of their gift-giving needs while still keeping costs manageable.
2. Showcase your deals effectively: Drive traffic to your Brand Store by adding it as a landing page for your Sponsored Brands campaign. You can promote deals in your Brand Store in two ways:
1. Automatically with the All Deals page, which appears only when you have active deals.
2. Through a custom-built dedicated deals page with your deal-eligible ASINs and the Featured Deals widget.

Key takeaway: Offer and communicate value to appeal to budget-conscious shoppers.

The holiday season isn’t just one moment or one country—it’s a diverse stretch of celebrations and shopping peaks around the world. Shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday that started in the U.S. are now anticipated by customers in multiple countries. Holidays like Diwali or Singles’ Day can boost sales in multiple countries where local communities mark the occasion. Explore the retail holiday calendar to learn more.

While other trends focused on changing shopping habits, it’s just as important to think globally and multiculturally. Selling across regions lets you tap into different cultural moments and keep your sales momentum strong as one celebration rolls into the next.

"Besides the U.S. store, there are opportunities across Europe and beyond. With Amazon stores now in 23 countries, brands can connect with shoppers during regional holiday shopping moments. Many of these stores are growing faster and can be more cost-efficient, too."
—Max Rottenaicher, Amerge

Plan for a multi-country ad campaign, localize, and cater to various events by country to help expand reach:

1. Identify and engage shoppers celebrating key events globally by leveraging intent signals: Use Amazon-built audiences to reach those browsing holiday-related products and reengage past customers.
2. Create global manual keyword targeting campaigns in minutes: During campaign creation for Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, select "manual targeting" to see relevant translations. For other tips, read our international advertising guide.
3. Use Generative AI to create fast, localized variations of ad copy or gift headlines.

Takeaway: Advertisers who localize their approach can help turn these celebrations into sales.

Sources

^1–3 Mintel Reports, US: Look Ahead, Winter Holiday Shopping, 2025.

^4–5 Mintel Reports US, Look Back Winter Holiday Shopping, 2025.

⁶ Amazon internal data, AE, AU, BE, BR, CA, DE, EG, ES, FR, IT, JP, MX, NL, PL, SA, SE, SG, TR, UK, US, ZA.

⁷ Statista Global Consumer Survey 2024.